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The Mirror Labyrinth on Petrin

The Labyrinth is right next to the Lookout Tower. Formerly, it was constructed by the project of the architect Wiehl as a pavilion of the Club of Czech Tourists and it was constructed in the same year as the Lookout Tower. The Labyrinth used to be situated at the Exhibition Place in Prague (Prazske Vystaviste), but two years after the end of its construction, it was relocated to Petrin. It is a copy of a gothic gate called Spicka (The Top), that used to be a part of the fortress at Vysehrad and it was built in second half of 14th century during the reign of Charles IVth. It was decorated by nine little towers.

After the relocation of the pavilion to Petrin, in the right part, the Mirror Labyrinth was constructed. The Labyrinth ends by the diorama painting. The painting shows the memorable situation from 1684, when the swedish army tried to conquer the Old Town. But thanks to the resistance of the students and professors from the Jesuit College, they didn´t succeeded. The combination of the painting and the relief front ground, the diorama shows the situation as a reality. It was created by brothers Adolf and Karel Liebscher and by Vojtech Bartonek.

The inspiration for the creation of the Mirror Labyrinth was taken from Prater in Vienna. The second room, the hall of laughter was in 1911 equiped by different mirrors that deforms human image in a funny way. Altogether, there are 35 ordinary and 15 special mirrors in the Labyrinth. In 1957, the whole building was reconstructed.

The Mirror Labyrinths in the worldThe first patent on a mirror labyrinth was registrated by Gustav Casten from Berlin in 1888 in France. According to his plane, the labyrinth in the Sultan Palace in Constantinopole was built in 1889. In 1893, the other labyrinth following his patent was created in Chicago.